17 January, 2017

Herman Hoeksema published A Triple Breach soon after his expulsion
from the Christian Reformed Church in 1924–26 and soon after the formation of the
Protestant Reformed Churches. The four chapters of the booklet were originally
four public lectures.

The booklet was published originally in Dutch
as Drie Scheuren in het Fundament der
Gereformeerde Waarheid. An English translation, A Triple Breach in the Foundation of the Reformed Truth, appeared
in 1942. The translator is not included. It is probable that Hoeksema
translated his own work from Dutch into English, especially since the
translator took some liberties with the text of the Dutch original. Long out of
print, this English translation was reprinted in 1992 by the evangelism society
of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. The only
change from the edition of 1942 was a new foreword in place of Hoeksema’s
preface. It is the 1942 translation, reprinted in 1992, that is published here
with Hoeksema’s original preface.

A
Triple Breach is Hoeksema’s critique—his devastating
critique—of the doctrine of common grace adopted by the Christian Reformed
Church in 1924. He demonstrates that the three points of common grace are not
interpretations of the Reformed creeds but “appendages” to the creeds. Chapter
by chapter, Hoeksema exposes each of the three points as corruption of the
truth of Scripture and the Reformed confessions. It was the conviction of
Hoeksema, as it is the conviction of the Protestant Reformed Churches today,
that the three points of common grace are “deviations from the truth that have
far-reaching effects and threaten to undermine the very foundations of the
Reformed truth” (Hoeksema’s preface).

In the booklet Hoeksema issued a challenge to
his Christian Reformed adversaries—Louis Berkhof, Henry Beets, and others—to
defend the three points in light of Hoeksema’s criticisms of them. They did not
respond. The reason was that Hoeksema had conclusively demonstrated that the
three points are utterly indefensible by one who claims to be Reformed and
therefore is bound by the confessions.

The challenge extended by A Triple Breach goes out today to every
theologian in the Christian Reformed Church, as also to all others who confess
the doctrine of a common grace of God along Christian Reformed lines. None will
respond to the challenge. None dares to respond. No defense of the three points
as Reformed according to the creeds is possible.

Every member of the Protestant Reformed
Churches ought to read A Triple Breach.
Societies should study and discuss it. The booklet establishes that the
existence of the Protestant Reformed Churches was occasioned by persecution of
a sound, faithful, Reformed minister for the truth’s sake and that this truth
was fundamental Reformed doctrine. It will also confirm to the member of these
churches that uncompromisingly confesses predestination, total depravity, and
the antithesis, the Protestant Reformed Churches are true churches of God and
necessary.

The work includes some memorable lines, for
example, “Regeneration is a wonder, common grace is magical.”

An appendix contains the three points of
common grace as adopted by the Christian Reformed Church and Hoeksema’s
succinct expression of the essence of each of them.